Lecture
9 - The True Meaning Of The Qur’an Cannot Be Understood Without The Help
Of The Imams

O Momins, may God help you in deriving the fullest benefit from philosophy.
May He guide you in thanking the Imams who are the highest authority on
this subject.

Do not pamper your bodies of flesh and blood. They are full of filth,
if they are not constantly washed and kept clean they will stink like a
carcass. Had it not been for the souls which are encased in them they would
have rotted in no time.

Your souls need a special care. Apply your minds to the study of the
tanzeel. The taweel is its unfolder, the tongue is the transmitter, the
ears are the receivers and the soul is the receptacle.

This world is not the original place of this receptacle. The soul is
a stranger here. Its original place is somewhere else. The destination
of its journey is the world of purity where there is light upon light,
God leads to the light only those whom He likes. Think of this. Think of
your precious souls. Close your ears to the earthly gossip of the meanest
type and keep them open for an elevating talk. Use your intellect with
which God has gifted you. It is only the fools who grope in the dark. Thank
God for the favour that He has done to you by giving you every facility
to seek your salvation and by providing you the Water of Life.

You have heard what I told you at the preceding
Lecture about the verse, "We created the heavens and earth and what
is between the two in six days and gave us no feeling of fatigue." I pointed
out to you that in the matter of creation Almighty God does not stand in
need of time. It is only the weak people who need time in the making of
things. I further pointed out to you that the meaning of this verse is
entirely different from what it usually explained to be by the commentators
who stick to the letter and miss the spirit. I explained to you that the
"six days", mentioned in the verse, refer to something else.

This verse is followed by "Be patient with what they say." The additional
verse has no connection whatsoever with the preceding one. This is again
one of the subtleties of the Qur'an which cannot easily be understood by
those who stick to the literal meaning of Qur'an and who maintain that
God actually took a certain fixed period in the making of this world. There
is another verse of the Qur'an which clearly proves that God took no time
in the creation of this world. The verse is as follows, "Whenever We intend
to create anything, We say ‘let there be' and there it is." Our opponents
maintain that these two verses are contradictory to each other. The fact
is that such verses which literally appear to be contradictory need an
explanation from the Imams of the Ahl-e Rasool who are the true interpreters
of the Qur'an. They alone can solve these difficulties and they alone can
dig deep into the minds and bring out the treasure for us. The Prophet
says, "I am leaving two weighty things. The one is the Book of God and
the second is my ‘Ahl-e Bait'. If you stick to them you will never lose
the way. They are inseparable. They cannot part with each other until they
return to Me and meet Me at the ‘hauz-e-Kausar'." Again the Prophet says,
"Learn from the learned divines of ‘Ahl-e Bait' and from those who have
learned from them. If you do so you will be secure from hell-fire".

In short, he who tries to understand the Qur'an through its ordinary
commentators will never get through its intricacies and he who tries to
interpret like those who interpret according to their own whims will also
be stuck up and will not know how to get out of it. The verse, "Be patient
with what they say," refers to these people who follow their own whims
and do not approach the proper authorities to solve their difficulties.
This verse is followed by the verse: "Praise God before sunrise and before
sunset". The ordinary commentators tell us that the verse refers to the
offering of morning prayer before sunrise and the afternoon prayer before
sunset. They say that the emphasis is laid on the importance of these two
prayers. They tell us one thing and lose sight of something else, which
is hidden from their notice on which God had laid much greater emphasis
than on these two prayers. By the grace of God we shall tell you what it
is in the next ‘Majalis'. O Momins, may God
make you profit by His ‘Zikr' and may He make the matter easy for you.